Neuromodulation is used to treat a variety of disorders including chronic pain, Parkinson's disease, and migraine. A neuromodulation system applies an electrical pulse to tissue in order to generate a therapeutic effect. When used to relieve chronic pain, the electrical pulse is applied to the dorsal column (DC) of the spinal cord or dorsal root ganglion (DRG). Such a system typically comprises an implanted electrical pulse generator, and a power source such as a battery that may be rechargeable by transcutaneous inductive transfer. An electrode array is connected to the pulse generator, and is positioned in the dorsal epidural space above the dorsal column. An electrical pulse applied to the dorsal column by an electrode causes the depolarisation of neurons, and generation of propagating action potentials. The fibres being stimulated in this way inhibit the transmission of pain from that segment in the spinal cord to the brain.
While the clinical effect of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is well established, the precise mechanisms involved are poorly understood. The DC is the target of the electrical stimulation, as it contains the afferent Aβ fibres of interest. Aβ fibres mediate sensations of touch, vibration and pressure from the skin. The prevailing view is that SCS stimulates only a small number of Aβ fibres in the DC. The pain relief mechanisms of SCS are thought to include evoked antidromic activity of Aβ fibres having an inhibitory effect, and evoked orthodromic activity of Aβ fibres playing a role in pain suppression. It is also thought that SCS recruits Aβ nerve fibres primarily in the DC, with antidromic propagation of the evoked response from the DC into the dorsal horn thought to synapse to wide dynamic range neurons in an inhibitory manner.
Neuromodulation may also be used to stimulate efferent fibres, for example to induce motor functions. In general, the electrical stimulus generated in a neuromodulation system triggers a neural action potential which then has either an inhibitory or excitatory effect. Inhibitory effects can be used to modulate an undesired process such as the transmission of pain, or to cause a desired effect such as the contraction of a muscle.
The action potentials generated among a large number of fibres sum to form a compound action potential (CAP). The CAP is the sum of responses from a large number of single fibre action potentials. The CAP recorded is the result of a large number of different fibres depolarising. The propagation velocity is determined largely by the fibre diameter and for large myelinated fibres as found in the dorsal root entry zone (DREZ) and nearby dorsal column the velocity can be over 60 ms−1. The CAP generated from the firing of a group of similar fibres is measured as a positive peak potential P1, then a negative peak N1, followed by a second positive peak P2. This is caused by the region of activation passing the recording electrode as the action potentials propagate along the individual fibres.
To better understand the effects of neuromodulation and/or other neural stimuli, it is desirable to record a CAP resulting from the stimulus. However, this can be a difficult task as an observed CAP signal will typically have a maximum amplitude in the range of microvolts, whereas a stimulus applied to evoke the CAP is typically several volts. Electrode artefact usually results from the stimulus, and manifests as a decaying output of several millivolts throughout the time that the CAP occurs, presenting a significant obstacle to isolating the CAP of interest. Some neuromodulators use monophasic pulses and have capacitors to ensure there is no DC flow to the tissue. In such a design, current flows through the electrodes at all times, either stimulation current or equilibration current, hindering spinal cord potential (SCP) measurement attempts. Moreover, high-pass filter poles in measurement circuitry generate increased electrical artefact with mono-phasic pulses. The capacitor recovers charge at the highest rate immediately after the stimulus, undesirably causing greatest artefact at the same time that the evoked response occurs.
To resolve a 10 uV SCP with 1 uV resolution in the presence of an input 5V stimulus, for example, requires an amplifier with a dynamic range of 134 dB, which is impractical in implant systems. As the neural response can be contemporaneous with the stimulus and/or the stimulus artefact, CAP measurements present a difficult challenge of amplifier design. In practice, many non-ideal aspects of a circuit lead to artefact, and as these mostly have a decaying exponential appearance that can be of positive or negative polarity, their identification and elimination can be laborious.
A number of approaches have been proposed for recording a CAP. King (U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,882) measures the spinal cord potential (SCP) using electrodes which are physically spaced apart from the stimulus site. To avoid amplifier saturation during the stimulus artefact period, recording starts at least 1-2.5 ms after the stimulus. At typical neural conduction velocities, this requires that the measurement electrodes be spaced around 10 cm or more away from the stimulus site, which is undesirable as the measurement then necessarily occurs in a different spinal segment and may be of reduced amplitude.
Nygard (U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,651) measures the evoked CAP upon an auditory nerve in the cochlea, and aims to deal with artefacts by a sequence which comprises: (1) equilibrating electrodes by short circuiting stimulus electrodes and a sense electrode to each other; (2) applying a stimulus via the stimulus electrodes, with the sense electrode being open circuited from both the stimulus electrodes and from the measurement circuitry; (3) a delay, in which the stimulus electrodes are switched to open circuit and the sense electrode remains open circuited; and (4) measuring, by switching the sense electrode into the measurement circuitry. Nygard also teaches a method of nulling the amplifier following the stimulus. This sets a bias point for the amplifier during the period following stimulus, when the electrode is not in equilibrium. As the bias point is reset each cycle, it is susceptible to noise. The Nygard measurement amplifier is a differentiator during the nulling phase which makes it susceptible to pickup from noise and input transients when a non-ideal amplifier with finite gain and bandwidth is used for implementation.
Daly (US Patent Application No. 2007/0225767) utilizes a biphasic stimulus plus a third phase “compensatory” stimulus which is refined via feedback to counter stimulus artefact. As for Nygard, Daly's focus is the cochlea. Daly's measurement sequence comprises (1) a quiescent phase where stimulus and sense electrodes are switched to Vdd; (2) applying the stimulus and then the compensatory phase, while the sense electrodes are open circuited from both the stimulus electrodes and from the measurement circuitry; (3) a load settling phase of about 1 μs in which the stimulus electrodes and sense electrodes are shorted to Vdd; and (4) measurement, with stimulus electrodes open circuited from Vdd and from the current source, and with sense electrodes switched to the measurement circuitry. However a 1 μs load settling period is too short for equilibration of electrodes which typically have a time constant of around 100 μs. Further, connecting the sense electrodes to Vdd pushes charge onto the sense electrodes, exacerbating the very problem the circuit is designed to address.
Evoked responses are less difficult to detect when they appear later in time than the artifact, or when the signal-to-noise ratio is sufficiently high. The artifact is often restricted to a time of 1-2 ms after the stimulus and so, provided the neural response is detected after this time window, data can be obtained. This is the case in surgical monitoring where there are large distances between the stimulating and recording electrodes so that the propagation time from the stimulus site to the recording electrodes exceeds 2 ms. Because of the unique anatomy and tighter coupling in the cochlea, cochlear implants use small stimulation currents relative to the tens of mA sometimes required for SCS, and thus measured signals in cochlear systems present a relatively lower artifact. However to characterize the responses from the dorsal columns, high stimulation currents and close proximity between electrodes are required, and therefore the measurement process must overcome artifact directly, in contrast to existing “surgical monitoring” techniques.
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